Tag Archives: poetry

The Time of Our Lives

“Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn.” are the profound last lines of the poem, Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day, by Delmore Schwartz. It’s a beautiful philosophical contemplation of the passage of time, with a particularly great wrap-up last stanza.

The seconds, minutes, hours tick away relentlessly. Our lives are busy, and inundated with many distractions and responsibilities. Lately I’m looking at my age and thinking, “Wow! It’s going faster than I ever imagined at age 18.”

Realistically, we don’t have time to sit around and endlessly ponder about the value of time and our lives. But, it’s useful to carve out a little time (from time to time) for such introspection. Because your life IS precious, and the clock IS ticking. Ask yourself in this moment, are you spending your life the way you really desire to?

It is crucially important to have vision and intention for our lives. Otherwise, we will just end up with someone else’s idea of how life should be.

Inspirational Time Quotes:

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~ Mark Twain

“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.” ~ Marie Lu

“Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” ~ Roy T. Bennett

“All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.” ~ Mitch Albom

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best for 2026. 🙂

Crimson Reverie

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At this time of year, every year, I feel the ache for home…

Crimson Reverie

Friends send word
that it’s a stellar
autumn back home,
punctuated with pics
of unimaginable
flushes of perfect
color, ringing against
deep blue skies,
nudging my heart
to impossible
yearnings…

For long luxurious
walks scented
by Nature’s turning,
the poignant musk of
her full fruition,
apricot and crimson
ablaze with sunlight,
her dazzling glow
embracing me,
bending my mood
and contemplation.

Whoever could feel
tired or defeated
on such days?

I felt naught
but goodness and
rightness on these
halcyon treks,
Nature teaching me
the natural way
of everything –
It is not death,
but a tender
“see you later”,
only to rise up
again, transformed
in sweet green,
bidding me “hello”,
begging me to
walk and talk
of possibilities,
plans, the rebirth
of everything,
including me.

But just for awhile,
how my heart longs
to stroll once again
‘neath that crimson.

Crimson Reverie is an excerpt from Our Beautiful Earth (2nd Edition)

Risk Opens New Doors

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Risk opens new doors... is a snippet from a longer poem, published a few years ago in an anthology of work written by seven women. This was my piece on the theme of risk.

Dare to Risk

Why have you chosen
a life that you say you hate?
You are chained by fear.

Risk opens new doors,
the guard at the prison gate
is really just you.

When your box gets small,
and you cannot breathe at all,
Alice says, “Stretch your mind”.

Click the Ruby Shoes!
You’ve always had the power
to claim your true Self.

Release from your past,
imagine a new future,
choose your happiness!

And an excerpt on risk from my ebook Becoming Bigger: In a world that wants to keep you small:

“We humans have a tendency to stay within our familiar routines and patterns. After all, that’s our safe zone, right? Change can be a very uncomfortable proposition, but the comfort zone inevitably becomes a boring prison. When we feel antsy and our hearts are screaming to break down the walls, this is a signal that it’s time for change. Our souls want to learn and grow. It’s a deep drive within each of us, but fear of change tends to hold us back. To become unstuck, we must have courage to let go of the old and try something new…“

Your beautiful soul was not meant to be caged. What risk will you take, what wall are you going to break down, what new door will you walk through today, to claim your happiness? Carpe diem.

Becoming Bigger: In a world that wants to keep you small is free for subscribers here. Wishing you a beautiful Sunday. 🙂

Note: If you noticed it on the image, @susanlhart is my handle on Substack at HumanitysFuture.substack.com. I invite you to join me if you read there. The title of my site is self-explanatory. 🙂

Autumn Messages

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Crimson Reverie

Friends send word
that it’s a stellar
autumn back home,
punctuated with pics
of unimaginable
flushes of perfect
color, ringing against
deep blue skies,
nudging my heart
to impossible
yearnings…

Whoever could feel
tired or defeated
on such days?

But just for awhile,
how my heart longs
to stroll once again
‘neath that crimson.

Eternal Rhythm

The golden leaves fall,
fearing not the decay of
a coming winter.

Death is essential
to the renewal of life –
All will spring again.

If each in nature
can feel this simple rhythm,
so can humans too.

Why do we resist?
Our fears overshadow the
truth of our being.

But the fall leaves know,
they show us that we too will
green the tree anew.

And to Canadian readers, wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

SusanLHart.com / Subscribe

You Are Heard. Always.

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When you get up at 5 a.m.,and you’re asking the universe for an answer to your problem, and you wonder if anyone at all is listening, and you look out the window, and this.

You are always heard, by somebody, somewhere, in this realm or some other. Never doubt it for a second. You just have to ask.

Life Is a Gift

It’s a blue-sky day,
one of those
beauteous blue-full,
joyously jocular,
splendidly splashy,
exceptional days –
I long to shout
LIFE IS A GIFT
in unmistakable
letters across the
blue shiny yonder,
to imprint them
indelibly on your
mind, so you’ll –

Remember when
the dark clouds roll
in, on a day when
life feels pissy and
oh so problematic,
to take a deep breath,
and close your eyes,
and gently pull the
gray gloom aside,
to see those big
oh so true words
I etched on blue
for you, so that
you’d never forget –

Life is a gift.

Life Is a Gift is from my ebook Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life. Today I’m giving away free copies. If you’d like one, I invite you to download it here.

Susan L Hart / SusanLHart.com / HarteBooks.com